1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film magazine for storing therein a plurality of films to be fed to a photographic printing apparatus, and relates, more particularly, to a film magazine for storing therein a plurality of film pieces to be reprinted according to a consumer's order.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional film magazines for feeding a film to a film insertion opening of a photographic printing apparatus are generally of two types, i.e. one adapted for storing only a single film piece and the other adapted for storing a plurality of film pieces which are spliced with each other via adhesive tapes. Here, it is understood that the `film piece` refers to one of a plurality of short film pieces cut from a long developed film strip in such a manner that each film piece has a predetermined length corresponding to 4 or 6 image-bearing frames. The Japanese laid-open patent gazette Hei. 7-64199 discloses a film magazine having an alternative construction permitting storage of a plurality of films without splicing them. Specifically, with this film magazine, a plurality of film pieces are wound one after another about a drum with a leading end of a film being placed over a trailing end of a preceding film. And, rollers are provided for pressing the outer peripheries of the wound films toward the common axis of winding thereof so as to maintain the overlapping end portions of the films under loaded contact with each other.
In the case of the film magazine of the first-mentioned type, i.e. the magazine adapted for storing a single film piece alone, for printing a plurality of film pieces by the printing apparatus, the magazine needs to be mounted and dismounted frequently. Hence, this type of magazine has room for improvement in terms of operational convenience. Incidentally, in the following discussion, it is understood that the term `film` refers to either such film piece as described above or the long un-cut film strip from which a plurality of film pieces are to be cut.
The film magazine of the second-mentioned type adapted for storing a plurality of films spliced with each other provides some improvement in the above respect by eliminating the necessity of such frequent mounting and dismounting operations. However, this type of magazine, of course, requires the different trouble of splicing the film pieces. In addition, if a subsequent operation requires a change in the winding order of the films, it is necessary to once separate the spliced films from each other and then to splice them again according to the required different order.
The film magazine of the third-mentioned type is designed to eliminate the above troubles relating to the splicing of films, by means of the construction described above. Yet, this third type magazine has not solved the secondmentioned problem of the second type magazine. That is, just like the second type magazine, the third type magazine does not allow freedom in changing the winding order of the films for the purpose of changing the printing order thereof, for the construction does not allow random access to any desired one of the films stored therein, but allows only sequential access from the outermost wound film. Hence, this magazine still has room for improvement in this respect.